Teachers In England Threaten To Strike

Teaching associations and unions have responded to proposed budget cuts in schools and colleges by suggestion strike action may be taken. Lots of people are understandable upset by the announcement and proposed strikes have been speculated.

The move came after an increased amount of young people applied for higher education and caught the government of guard. Rather than celebrate the increasing desire of students to stay on a school or college, Labour have announced that there will be a £200m shortfall in funding this year.  This will likely put the future of as many as 50,000 young adults in jeopardy, lead to a drop in school bursaries, and will mean that many will have to look for paid work instead. Given that we are in a time of very low employment levels, this point is something many in the sector are deeply concerned about.

The National Union of Teachers have lashed out at the news of the drop in funding, stating that it is "utterly disgraceful". A 'lost generation' is what they think will be the result of this, simular to the situation with school leavers in the 1980's. “This would not happen in independent or boarding schools and should not happen in the state system” they said. The cut was a result of a misjudgement in the suspected amount of students continuing at sixth-forms, colleges and training schemes. Many of these places have now received around 4% less money than they first thought and will be forced to save the money by scrapping courses and possibly teaching jobs.The NUT annual conference in Wales is where the issue was first addressed and lots of speakers voted for strikes at the educational institutions that were affected

Ed Balls, the Schools Secretary, has optionally acknowledged that there are clear problems at the moment in terms of funding the students who want get higher qualifications. He blames the rise in young people wanting to further their education on the recession causing a lack of job opportunities. He argues that their are lots of students who are unwilling to enter the uncertain job market right now and would rather stay in education until the storm blows over

Leave a Comment